Rosy Lights Azalea

Deep rosy-pink flowers with a sweet fragrance cover this shrub in late spring, dense enough that the branches disappear underneath. Rhododendron 'Rosy Lights' grows 4 to 5 feet tall and 5 to 6 feet wide in full sun to part sun, hardy from Zone 4 through Zone 8.

It spreads wider than tall, which gives it a broader presence than most of the series.

For most of the last century, gardeners north of Zone 5 could grow an azalea but rarely see it flower, since the plant survived while the buds froze. Northern Lights changed that. Buds hardy to 30 below mean the display arrives every spring, not just after a mild winter. The series has grown to a dozen or so selections in white, pink, orange, red, and yellow, all deciduous, most of them fragrant, and all blooming in mid to late spring after the frost that catches earlier azaleas.

This is a deciduous azalea, so the leaves drop in fall after turning bronze to burgundy. Acidic soil is necessary, roughly pH 4.5 to 6.0, with good drainage and steady moisture. Alkaline ground turns the foliage yellow. Mulch the shallow roots.